Football Wiretap

Cam Newton dismissed speculation about why he was benched for the first offensive series against the Seattle Seahawks last week as "falsified stories."

Ron Rivera said Newton violated a team dress-code policy, but there have been stories floating around the internet that the quarterback was at a strip club late the night before the game.

"I violated the wardrobe [policy], and that's it," Newton said. "You don't have to dig into certain stories that I violated curfew, was out at a club, somebody was calling the room. I still stand by Coach Rivera's decision, and that's just a warning for everybody.

"At no point in time -- or even still -- do I think I'm above the law. I never thought that. I'm not that type of player."

Carson Wentz is the NFL's lowest-rated passer since Week 6 and the Philadelphia Eagles are working to help him change that.

After Sunday's loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, Philadelphia's sixth in their last seven games, Doug Pederson attributed the slump to mechanical flaws that many saw in Wentz at North Dakota State.

"Strictly mechanics," Pederson said. "... Young quarterback, missed quite a bit of time in the preseason, but now we have to keep cleaning this thing up."

Wentz works daily on his mechanics with offensive coordinator Frank Reich and quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo. Pederson admitted that the overhaul would be more complete if his rookie was still sitting behind a veteran quarterback.

"These are some of the decisions that I made back when the (Sam Bradford) trade was made," Pederson said. "These were going to be some of the pains we were going to have to go through, and just him understanding and him learning and us growing together as an offense, he and I growing as coach and quarterback together, it's all part of the process."

The Seattle Seahawks expect Earl Thomas to resume his playing career next season despite openly talking about contemplating retirement following his season-ending broken tibia.

“Absolutely. He loves to play this game, there’s no doubt," said defensive coordinator Kris Richard. "Of course we’re all disappointed. I know he is. He’s not getting a chance to do what he loves to do. I certainly hope so because the game is better with him out there playing.”

Pete Carroll and teammate Richard Sherman on Wednesday also each said they expect Thomas back in 2017.

Larry Fitzgerald doesn't expect to play long enough to catch Jerry Rice and Tony Gonzalez on the all-time receptions list.

While Fitzgerald insisted he wasn't announcing a pending retirement, the math shows he could be heading there soon.

He's 220 receptions away from passing Gonzalez, who has 1,325 career catches. Fitzgerald is on pace to finish this season with a career-high 117 catches after setting a career high with 109 in '15.

If Fitzgerald, who's in his 13th season and is tied for the NFL lead with 88 catches, were to finish with 117, he would head into next season needing 191 to pass Gonzalez for No. 2 all time and 415 to pass Rice, whose 1,549 catches rank first.

Fitzgerald could theoretically catch Gonzalez sometime in 2018.

"I don't plan on playing that long to catch those guys," Fitzgerald said.

Jeff Fisher criticized the Los Angeles Rams' personnel decisions when asked about the contract extension agreed upon by Les Snead.

“I’m so busy here, I was honestly unaware he was extended. I’m being honest with you, we’re just working here,” Fisher said. “I look at this as being my responsibility, the win-loss record. We need to do a better job from a personnel standpoint. We’ve had some unfortunate things take place with some high picks in Stedman Bailey and Tre Mason and those kinds of things you don’t anticipate.

“But we’re moving forward.”

The comments weren't well received within the Rams' front office.

“It pissed me off because I knew it was meant as a shot,” said one Rams source. “You see it under that umbrella—‘We need to do a better job in personnel.’ OK, but you want everyone to think that you have full control. You can’t have it both ways, and it can’t always be the talent. Look at the roster, 2012 to now. In ’12, Jeff did a masterful job with what he was given. But we’ve gotten more talent, and we’ve gotten worse.”

Fisher and Snead arrived as part of an arranged 2012 marriage after the Rams fired Steve Spagnuolo and Billy Devaney.

The relationship between Fisher and Snead has been consistently described as “toxic.”

“It’s always good to have healthy tension between the coach and GM, but that shouldn’t hurt the team or cause finger-pointing,” said another club source. “Over five years, (Tuesday) was the first time you saw public comments. That should never happen. … The organization has given them a long leash. And given that they’ve had time, they have to win, and they have to be able to work together.”

"It's all about being in the right situation at the right time," Griffin said Thursday after he was named the starter for Sunday's game against the Cincinnati Bengals. "My job is to make sure that this is the right situation and the right time."

Hue Jackson also said it's important to see Griffin so the Browns can garner more information before deciding if they should bring him back in 2017.